I did the unthinkable and ventured out to Lake San Antonio on Saturday afternoon.
This was definitely THE PLACE to be!
If you like to ... PARRRRRRRRTY!!!! <grin>
Arriving at the LSA south-shore check station about 5:00pm on Saturday, the LSA staff member who greeted me immediately recognized who I was (one of those "telescope-people"), and was *very* surprised when I told her that I intended to observe/camp at the Overflow area. Heading toward the center of the baseball field, the reason for her look of surprise became quite clear. Now I pretty much had the entire baseball field - no shade in the area, of course - all to myself. Everywhere else in the Overflow area - and I DO mean *EVERYWHERE* - were hundreds of people with their tents, cars, trucks, motorhomes, motorcycles, trailers, boats, etc. Spanish and rap music filled the air, BBQs were going like there was no tomorrow, soccer balls and volleyballs were being kicked left and right, kids were riding all over the place on their bicycles, beer was flowing like a river ... you get the picture. Just a typical Memorial-Day Weekend camping crowd, with a decidedly "south-of-the-border" accent to the weekend event.
Yep, right then and there I could have turned around and headed for The Peak, but I decided to stay for just one night, knowing that the faint stuff would definitely elude me. Even if observing turned out to be a total bust, I had a couple of books with me, and knew I could just kick back and relax for the evening. Alone in the center of the field (93-deg. F when I arrived), I set up both the 18" Obsession and the 14.5" Starmaster. Wasn't long before kids starting coming over my way, generally to ask, "Hey, mister! My Dad/Mom/Uncle/Cousin/Grandma/.../ wants to know what those things are!" So I'd explain, and I soon had a crowd of young and old alike looking over the 'scopes. I know many of you have had very similar experiences. The one comment I liked the most came from a young kid who wanted to know if, as his Mom suggested, it was true that I used "those cannons to blast kids across the field if they didn't finish their dinner." <grin> Needless to say, once the sun set and the stars started coming out, I spent most of the night with the Starmaster, showing off the brighter showcase items to dozens of people. Despite the campfires, the lantern-lights, etc., it was quite an experience, with people constantly bringing me food and drink. The Overflow area was definitely a *major* party area. (The police only showed up once. Honest! <grin>) Music and laughter, along with those campfires, continued until after midnight, with visitors often returning for more views of objects in the heavens. The showcase items I placed into the eyepiece and officially logged for the crowd on Saturday night were the Moon, Polaris ("It's really a double?"), Mizar & Alcor ("Mizar is a double, too?"), M51, M94, M3, M5, M13, M92, M44, M104, M68, M83, M57, M27, M81/82, M65/66, NGC 4565, M53, M64, Albireo, Mars, M9, M10, M12, along with a host of un-logged items in Sagittarius. Two adults who stayed with me until 1:30am said their favorite objects of the entire night were M51, M13, M92, M57, M17 ("A swan? Looks like a check mark to me!") and Albireo. Mars, by the way, looked absolutely terrible, boiling away. Virtually every light was out by 2:00am, so I moved to the 18" Obsession for the next hour and a half, chasing H-400 stuff, and finally climbed into my sleeping bag at 3:45am. (Still no luck confirming NGC 4266, even with the 18"!)
With fog covering the area, at 9:30am Sunday morning I crawled out of my van. Spanish music emanated from the campsites, and people started bringing me breakfast! What a great way to start off the day! :) Following breakfast, I hiked around for a couple of hours, and then took an afternoon nap. Compared to the morning, I noticed there weren't quite as many people in the Overflow area in the late afternoon, with the temperature 10-deg. lower than the previous afternoon. The day took a very interesting turn about 5:00pm. One gent, "Papa," who spoke very little English, wanted to know why the Moon went through phases, and why it appeared in different areas of the sky each night. With his son translating, and other family members and their friends gathering around to listen, I explained the basics, using a couple of soccer balls and a baseball for props. Eyes widened when it became clear that a few of these folk were hearing about the actual relationship between the Sun, the Earth and the Moon for the first time. I brought out a couple of books, and further described the solar system, our galaxy, globular clusters, distances ... and the cosmos in general. The group to whom I was doing the explaining were illegals from Mexico, carpenters and farm workers, who had very little formal education. It was quite an emotional experience for me. I was invited over for dinner, where we discussed comets and meteors, the nature of artificial satellites, and a host of other items to include the nature of those craters they had seen on the Moon the night before. Not long after the sun set, using the Starmaster I was able to capture Mercury for 'em, dancing low in the west with its crescent phase clearly visible. Since my earlier discussion on the solar system included both Mercury and Venus moving through visible phases like our Moon, this was a perfect example to back up my words. A bit later, when "Papa" spotted a satellite passing overhead, and I confirmed that this was indeed what he was seeing, well, he must have been the proudest person on the planet! This was just too cool! Viewing the Moon through the 'scope for a second night in a row, I knew "Papa" was seeing La Luna from a brand new perspective. :)
The rest of the night was pretty much a repeat of Saturday's, with three exceptions. First, I showed off M51 and M13 in the 18" 'scope to the couple who had stayed with me late the previous evening (they had already seen both in the 14.5" 'scope). Needless to say, they were blown away. Second, another amateur astronomer (owns an 8" SCT), who had spotted the 'scopes earlier in the day, asked me if I'd heard of the Markarian Chain. I walked him through it. <grin> And last, Mars looked *much* better than it had the previous evening. Much less atmospheric movement, and much more surface detail. Must have been a great night for the refractor folk! With music and laughter still in the background, I had the skies back to myself about midnight, moving back to the 18" to hunt more Herschels. I hit the sack at 2:30am, *very* glad that I'd gone to LSA.